My name is Teacher, and my mistakes are Legion.
None of these mistakes are catastrophic. I haven’t lost my temper and pulled my hair out by the roots. I haven’t made grading errors that led to a 75 percent flunk rate. I haven’t written such colossally terrible letters of recommendation that my students were denied entry to their dream grad school. Rather, mine are minor errors that speak to the mistake-prone nature of human beings: calling students by the wrong name; forgetting to unmute myself when simultaneously teaching in person and over Zoom; neglecting to post students’ pre-writing activities before class and then scolding said students for not completing the tasks.
